(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so Isaiah chapter 38, we're continuing in our stories with Hezekiah, that was the king of Judah, and we're going to jump in here now in chapter number 1, or excuse me, verse number 1 of chapter 38. If you remember, just previously, we had the king of Assyria come, well, he sent Rabshakeh, and they were, you know, railing on the Lord, and blaspheming the name of the Lord, saying, you know, who's going to save you? You're going to trust in Egypt, you're going to trust in Ethiopia, you're going to trust in your God, we've defeated all these gods. And then, of course, God brings us great victory, and, you know, the angel defends Jerusalem, and, you know, all these people are just dead corpses, and the king returns, and his own sons kill him, and when he's in the house of his god, and that's kind of where we left off previously. So now, we're getting to a point in Hezekiah's life where it says here in the first verse that he's sick unto death, so he gets plagued with this disease that is a disease unto death. Verse number 1 says, in those days Hezekiah, in those days was Hezekiah sick unto death, and Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. Isaiah, he actually gets a visit from the prophet, you know, informing Hezekiah that, look, you know, this disease that you have is unto death. You know, you're going to die, so just get your house in order, get everything straightened up, you know, do what you need to do to be prepared and just be ready to die. And, you know, Hezekiah hears this in verse number 2, says that Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed unto the Lord. And, you know, I love this response from Hezekiah when he hears that he has this disease and he's sick unto death, he turns to God. He doesn't go running to the physician, he doesn't go running to modern science, he doesn't go running to try to deal with his disease as his first thing that he does is just going off to, you know, to see what man can do for him, he goes straight to the Lord. He says he prayed unto the Lord. Verse 3 says, and said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. So he just, you know, obviously is very upset, I think anybody would, hearing that you're about to die, that you've got this disease and this disease is going to kill you. And he's just pleading with the Lord saying, God, please, you know me, you know my life, you know that I've served you in truth, you know that I've served you with a perfect heart, you know that I've been trying to do you well, Lord, please, you know, help me here, essentially is what he's saying and he starts weeping. Verse 4 says, Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears, behold, I will add unto thy days, fifteen years. What an amazing answer to prayer. And God spares him and God saves him and God heals him. And, you know, there's a few things I just want to point out here. I've been preaching a little bit on prayer lately, but with the God, we could all be in a position to say when anything bad comes as we're facing something dire, we're facing something really horrible, whether it be a disease or some other tragic event or heart event that we have to face, that we could just go to God and say, God, you know me, you know that I've walked in truth, Lord, you know my heart, you know that I've been serving you, you know that I walk in the integrity of my heart, and I've been doing everything I can to serve you. Lord, please help me in this situation. What a great place to be in, because obviously we see here, God heals Hezekiah's prayer. And he answers it, and he gives him the request, and he's saying, you know what? I am going to be entreated for you. I've heard you. I see your tears, Hezekiah. I love you. I'm going to give you fifteen more years. Amen. This is one of the reasons why we pray. I'm going to keep saying this over and over again until I'm blue in the face, but this is the reason why we have our prayer requests. This is the reason why we ought to be praying regularly every day, because God is a God that heals. God is real. We don't just do this, we don't send positive thoughts and energy, as a lot of worldly people today would like to say, oh, I'm sending positive energy your way. Look, that's nonsense. You can do all you want with your energy things that you want to try to move energy around. I'm going to go to the Lord, where something real could happen. The God of all living, the God of all creation, the God that made everything that is capable of doing anything. I'm going to go to that God, God Almighty. You could play around with your energy in warm fuzzies, but you know what, if I want something, I don't want your positive energy. I want to hear your prayers to the Lord. God adds 15 years. And again, this is one of those interesting things where it's just kind of like, you know you've got 15 years exactly. First of all, God promised that to you. He said, hey, I'm going to add 15 years. God's not a liar, so at least he knows he's got 15 years. Guaranteed, right? I'm going to live for at least 15 years here. That's great. What would you do with your time if you knew you had 15 years to live? Whether it be, wow, 15 years or only 15 years. What would you do? And on top of this, now look at what God continues, you know, this message that Isaiah gives his Echiah from the Lord. Verse 6 says, and I will deliver thee and the city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend the city. And so God continues to promise. He's saying, look, I'll defend you. I'm going to save you. I'm going to have you 15 years. And you know what? I'm going to be with you, and I'm going to defend you. I'm going to defend this city. That's great news all the way around. No matter how you decide, this is awesome news. Verse 7, and this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken. Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, 10 degrees backward. So the sun returned 10 degrees, by which degrees it was gone down. And this is an amazing, an amazing miracle. Basically what this is saying, I mean, they're talking about a sundial, right? Does everyone know what a sundial is? It's just a really old way of a clock, right? Or a watch, or whatever. And it just uses the sun, the position of the sun, with a little triangle or stick that kind of sticks up, and whatever the shadow is pointing on the clock is how you know what hour of the day it is. Obviously it doesn't work at night. It works in the daytime when the sun's up. It's a sundial, right? It's going to tell you what time it is. So, what this is saying is that, you know, 10 degrees or 360 degrees around the sundial, right? So it's going to go backwards by 10 degrees. So he's making time, well, it's not really time, but it's the, you know, he's making the sun go back in its path. Or if you want to say the earth, you know, move the opposite rotation or, you know, and whatever you believe about cosmology honestly doesn't matter for this miracle. It's funny, I went back because I remember, and this is a really cool teaching here that we get from other chapters, and we're going to cover this as well. When I was preaching out of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 20 is also where this story is found. And I went back yesterday and checked. So my preaching, I was thinking, like, man, because I can't remember how long ago the whole flat earth thing, like, became anything at all, like, online. But I had mentioned it then, and, you know, so I was like, yeah, you know, I'll probably mention it again now. But the point I was making back then, the same point I make today, you know, because I have heard, and this is why I brought it up then, and it's been a long time since I've heard this because it seems like that nonsense is kind of dying out. I don't know. I mean, one of the, Rob Skeba died right when the guy's burning in hell now, so he's, you know, he was, well, he is. I mean, he was a false prophet. He believed in, like, repentance and salvation. He was a total heretic and did not believe the right gospel. That guy is, I'm pretty sure that guy's dead. And he was one of the main proponents of this flat earth nonsense. But I remember hearing someone mocking, saying, oh, what would happen if, you know, if you're really spinning on a ball, right, for this to happen, you'd have to go backwards. And if you went backwards, and that means, I mean, everybody would be falling down because there's all this spinning, you know, it's like, and then how do you start to back up again? Wouldn't you know that or feel that? It's like, look, idiot, it's a miracle. And then I said, it doesn't matter how you believe the cosmos operate. It doesn't matter. Whether you think the earth is stationary and the sun literally goes around the earth, if you think that, you know, whatever, but even if you do think that everything going back, the sun going back has other ramifications and impact on everything else. There's a circuit and a course of the heavens and the way that everything progresses forward and forward momentum just in general. Even going back 10 degrees, like, God has to kind of deal with everything to do this. It's not just one thing to deal with. It's all of it. There's a lot of forces at work in nature, in the way that God created the sun and the moon and the earth and how everything plays together. So whether that miracle was, you know, making a sun travel backwards or making an earth turn its rotation, you know, it's all a miracle. So it's folly to come up with an argument saying, oh, well, that couldn't happen. Well, of course, nothing could happen naturally. That's why this is such an awesome miracle because there's absolutely no way to fake this or fraud this miracle. He references the sundial of Ahaz, first of all, which is like an established sundial. This isn't some trickery of some David Copperfield making his sundial so it looks like there's this optical illusion of the sun going back 10 degrees. It's like, no, that's the sundial that people are relying on and looking to and has been working, you know, whatever, at least for, you know, however many years because Ahaz was Hezekiah's father, right? So it's been around for a while. Hezekiah's already at a later portion of his life. I mean, he was sick unto death. Now, he gets 15 more years, but he still, he ruled and reigned for a long time in Jerusalem. And, you know, so this type of a miracle is just amazing, right? Because there's other miracles where people like to say, oh, you could do this or do that to try to trick people. You know, Jesus turned water into wine. He could have added some, you know, dried grapes or something. You know, it's just something, some kind of powder to make it turn into, you know, whatever, right? Stupid things that people want to think of to try to downgrade the miracles of God. But literally, like, moving backwards in time, like the whole, the sun going back, that shows the awesome power of God. And turn, if you would, to 2 Kings chapter 20. Actually, keep your place here. Because there's a little bit more to the story. You know, I like getting more of the information. This is more of highlights in Isaiah chapter 38 because after this and in Isaiah 38, we're going to get into Hezekiah's mindset and his thoughts, like, when he hears he's going to die and God's saving him and things like that. So that's a whole other point to this story being told. But we get some other details in 2 Kings chapter 20 that I just want to go over this. Because this miracle of the shadow being brought back 10 degrees, there's actually more to it. Hezekiah had the choice of what miracle he wanted to do. So we're going to see that here. It wasn't just God deciding he was just going to do that, but let's take a look at this. We'll look at verse number 5 of 2 Kings chapter 20. The Bible says, So we're seeing a little bit more information here, too, saying, okay, well, I'm going to heal you, and then on the third day, you're going to go up unto the house of the Lord. And as we're going to see, I think this ties in just prophetically with the third day Jesus Christ rises again from the dead. Hezekiah was sick unto death, essentially, before he was saved and healed. We're going to see that great salvation verse later on in Isaiah chapter 38, too. But this ties in on both aspects of this story being recorded here from 2 Kings 20 as well as Isaiah chapter 38. These prophetic statements that symbolize Jesus Christ and hear him receiving this healing so that on the third day, he's going to go up unto the house of the Lord. Verse number 6 says, And I will add unto thy days fifteen years, and I will deliver thee and the city out of the hand of the king of Syria, and I will defend the city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake, is what we already heard in Isaiah 38. Verse 7, and Isaiah said, So this lump of figs is kind of the mechanism that God uses to heal him. He's already promised to heal him. I don't think that figs by themselves would have just healed Hezekiah if he would have just tried to do this on his own. God is definitely healing him. But there's more symbolism here that I don't fully understand with the lump of figs, and if you've got an idea on that, I'd love to hear it after church. But this is something that he does, and this is something that isn't explained very much in this chapter. It's just kind of brought up as an afterthought at the end of the chapter. Verse number 8 says, So now he's asking, he's like, okay, well, what are you going to show me that I really am not going to die, that this is going to happen? Verse 9 says, And then he asks the question, shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, it is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. To me, that's kind of a funny statement. It's just a light thing. If all of a sudden time just went by ten degrees, well, it's not that big of a deal. But I understand what he's saying, because it's still the natural motion and momentum in saying, people could still try to explain this one away. You just accelerate just a little bit to move forward that ten degrees in a moment. He says, nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. Because that is very significant of a miracle to perform going backwards by those ten degrees. Verse 11, Isaiah, the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. Now, turn to Isaiah chapter 7, because there's this little reference to the dial of Ahaz that is not in there by accident. And I know that it has to do with this miracle and the sign, and Hezekiah was very bold in asking for the sign, and not only asking for a sign, but asking for the most difficult sign. We had the choice, like, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want it just to go down ten degrees. Because it's like, what are you going to do? Are you going to weary God? You're like, God, you know what? This is really going to make an impact. How about we make it go backwards ten degrees? That's the sign I want to see. So He chooses that the hardest thing possible to be done, even just between two choices, He's definitely like, no, no, no, we've got to go with this hard one. And when God is going to do something, and God is going to use somebody, and God is going to make Himself known, it's all the more glory to His name doing the most impossible things. So God likes that. He likes seeing that. He likes when people are willing to offer themselves up. He likes seeing David stand up against a giant. He likes seeing someone, you know, this youth that's, you know, not a warrior, not that skilled, but He's willing to be used of the Lord to just stand up against the most formidable enemy. He likes seeing that. He says, you know what? Yeah, well, I'll give you this victory. Or Jonathan, when it's just him and his armor bearer against like the whole host of the Philistines, and he's, you know, Jonathan's just saying, you know what? Lord can save by few or by many. Because God's that big. God could say, if God wants, you know, if it's God's will, you know what? We could just go forth and destroy this army. And you know what? God loves seeing that. God likes using people, especially in situations like that, because it's going to bring that glory and that credit unto the Lord. And it's going to make His name known for using people that should, physically speaking, naturally speaking, never be able to accomplish the things that they end up accomplishing. Because it's only through the power of God. So this miracle is demonstrated at the dial of Ahaz. Look at Isaiah chapter 7, verse number 1. We're going to read a little bit about Ahaz. By the way, then it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that reason the king of Syria and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim, and his heart was moved in the heart of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and she of Jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool and the highway of the forest field. So what's happening here, and we covered this a little bit in Isaiah chapter 7 when I preached through that many weeks ago, Ahaz is in a predicament where they're looking at being invaded and this enemy coming, and it says here that their heart is moved in the heart of the people, just like the trees are blown with the wind, they're all over the place inside, they're not steady, they're not solid, and they're fearful and know what's going to happen. So God sends Isaiah to meet Ahaz to basically try to tell him, look, I'm going to defend you. Now Ahaz was not a good king. Hezekiah was a great king. Ahaz was not. Ahaz did wickedly, even the people didn't really, when he was gone, it was kind of like one of those, he's gone, thank you, he's gone. He didn't get all the honor of being buried in the sepulchres of his fathers and getting all the recognition of being a righteous king and everything like that. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. So God's sending Isaiah here, but look at this, verse number 4. It says, and they say unto him, take heed and be quiet. Fear not, neither be faint hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of reason with Syria and of the son of Ramaliah. Jump down to verse number 9. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Ramaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. So he's basically saying, look, I'm going to take care of all this for you, just believe. If you don't believe, you're not going to be established. God's looking to use this man in this situation to be like, look, I'm going to bring a victory, just believe. Verse number 10. Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. So say, look, just ask me a sign. I'll prove it to you. I'll show you that I'm going to keep my word. I'll show you that I'm going to save you. Ask me whatever you want. Ask me a sign and I'll do it. But look at Ahaz's response. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. Now that's not what it means to tempt the Lord. God's asking you and saying, look, I'll show you a sign. Pick out a sign. This isn't the same as like, I'm going to act all reckless because I know that God's just going to save me anyways. That's tempting the Lord. Just like Jesus said, I'm not going to tempt God. When the devil's trying to get him to jump off the top of a temple, you're just like, no, I'm not going to jump off just because the Scripture says, He's got 15 years. Cool, man, I'm going to go and I'm just going to see if I can just jump off an airplane with no parachute. God promised me 15 years, right? No, don't tempt God that way. Don't be foolish. That's what that means. But when God says, hey, ask a sign and I'll give it to you, you don't have to worry about tempting God. He's the one telling you, hey, I'll show you a sign. But he has this pyro, no, no, no, I'm not going to tempt God. And this makes God angry. Verse number 13 says, and he said, hear ye now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? So God gets really angry about this. And since he chose not to have a sign shown unto him, then of course, God, you know, he talks about the virgin, bring forth a son, and that sign in this chapter. But I think the reason why it's used and brought up, lay the dial of Ahaz, is because Ahaz did not want to choose a sign. So it's still being demonstrated to Ahaz posthumously, you know, look, Ahaz, you didn't want a sign, but look at what your son, look at what Hezekiah is doing, look at the sign that he chose. And it's going to be demonstrated on the dial of Ahaz that bears his name, even though he didn't want a sign. God's still going to show his power, God wanted to show a sign, and there you go. And I think that's an interesting justice kind of that you see of God using that in that it's specifically referencing Ahaz's name, the very person who didn't want to have a sign, the sign is shown on that dial of Ahaz. So I thought that was a pretty cool piece of truth in the scripture there. Go back to Isaiah chapter 38. Isaiah chapter 38, now we're going to get into, it says here in verse 9, the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness. He records some of his thoughts during this time, and you said it's going to be a very significant time in your life when you're literally facing death, what you're going to be going through, and things you're going to be thinking and feeling, And then also what you're going to be thinking and feeling, having that lifted, that burden, that load of facing death, now all of a sudden you're saved, and you're not going to die imminently. So this is what he's thinking, verse number 10 says, I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave, I am deprived of the residue of my years. Wherever years I had left, he was saying, I'm not going to have that anymore. I said I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living. I should behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life. He will cut me off with pining sickness. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me? I reckon till morning that as a lion, so will he break all my bones. From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me? So Ezekiel is in despair. Obviously he's really upset, he's sad, and he's just thinking about these things, and he says in verse 14, like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. So he's looking to the Lord, he feels like this kind of helpless, defenseless bird, and he's just chattering away and mourning as he's looking up to God for his help. And a humble man too, I mean he's not trusting in his riches, he's not trusting in anything else, and he's just literally just brought down like a little bird, and he's just looking to the Lord as his Savior. Verse 15 says, What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. Now that word bitterness here, I just want to explain this real quickly too, when we study out scripture, obviously the Bible teaches us not to be bitter people, not to be bitter against people, and things like that, but the way that the word is being used here, it's not that same bitterness of being angry or holding resentment. This bitterness of soul is not like he's bitter against God. The bitterness is more of like, I mean if you eat something bitter, it's kind of like that reaction, you're not going to be sweet towards facing your death. He's literally facing death, so it's the bitterness of his soul that he's going to go softly in his years, because he's sad, he's depressed that he's going to face death. That's all it means, it's not this bad attitude towards God. Just so you understand, because we do oftentimes use bitterness, it's definitely a bad thing when it comes to holding resentment towards people, and harboring some ill will or feelings towards other people if they do you wrong. That is not what we're talking about here, this is just talking about being kind of sad and down because of his situation and where he is. So you can see Job kind of talking about being in the bitterness of his soul, what he's going through, his problem, he's had this horrible disease and all these bad things happen to him, so he's just sad, he's grieving. That's what this means. And then in verse 16, So now he's turned around because he knows that God is going to save him. So what we're getting here is a greater picture. Obviously, you have the immediate picture of his own physical salvation of being healed from sickness that was unto death, and being promised with life, and healing and recovering and physically doing better. But we're being told this story for a much greater purpose than just the fact that Hezekiah was healed of a disease and happened to live a little bit longer. The much greater truth that's being taught here is the hopelessness of sinners just headed towards death, headed towards hell. Having that bitterness of soul, having nothing to look forward to, having no hope in this world because the unsaved person has nothing to look forward to at all. But when God saves you and when God gives you that life and when God casts all of your sins behind His back, as He's saying here, that's great news. He says, look, instead of peace, I had great bitterness, but because you loved me, my soul was delivered. So this is both physically speaking and spiritually speaking. It's God who first loved us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God delivers us from the pit of corruption, from the snares of death and hell. And this is the good news, and this is what's so joyful and what's so great. He says, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. And you know what that means? If God's casting your sins behind His back, He's not going to turn around and go back and be like, wait, let's see, where are those sins at again? Look, the Bible teaches over and over again that when your sins are separated from you, you're cleansed from them. The Bible says that He separates you from your sins as far as the east is from the west. When you're washed in the righteous blood of Jesus Christ, I mean, you're washed clean. You're every bit whole. You're every bit made white, clean through that blood of Jesus Christ. God is not going to bring up your sins to you anymore, and I only believe this. Even at the judgment seat of Christ, I think God is going to be bringing up your sins to you because I think He's already separated you from your sins. Now, you're going to receive for what you've done in your body, yes, but what's going to happen is, and it's illustrated through your works all being gathered together, whether it's wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, precious stones, and that whatever abides a fire, that's what He's going to reward you with, but that's an illustration. We don't know what that literally looks like when you're standing before the judgment seat of Christ. I don't think you're going to see a fire burning whatever is representative of your works. I don't think you're going to see that. I think the whole point is just to drive that point home of, hey, what you're doing here, a lot of it's just going to be good for nothing. It's going to burn up. It's going to be useless and worthless, but you will get the things that matter and are valuable. We get that teaching. It's probably just going to be God giving you whatever reward that you have earned for Him. I don't think it's going to be necessarily this long process of seeing everything that you've done. It could be like, okay, here's what you did that was of eternal value. I could be wrong about that, but there's no information to show otherwise, and we have lots of Scripture talking about that our sins aren't going to be mentioned to us anymore. They're gone, and why would He? Especially in that condition, too. Think about this. We are chastised for our sins here on earth. Why? Why are we chastised? Because we're still in this flesh and in this body, and we still have the ability, even, to sin. We can choose to walk in the Spirit. We can choose to walk in the flesh. So God is going to try to guide us and direct us and get us on the right path and chastise. No, no, no. Don't go that way. You need to go this way. But once your flesh is gone, you're standing before Christ at the Jesuit seat of Christ. You have a new flesh. You've got your spirit. You're not going to sin anymore. Whatsoever is born of God doth not commit sin. So what would be the purpose of throwing your sins at you in your face after your sinful flesh is already gone? There's nothing you can do about it. It's already over. You don't need to be put back in line because you're not going to be tempted to sin anymore without having a sinful flesh. It's gone. So what would even the purpose be? It's silly. People believe different things, but when you look at all scripture, you look at scripture like this, you've cast all my sins behind my back. That means it's gone. I'm done with that. Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before. That's the way God deals with our sins. And then verse 18, I want to spend a little bit of time on this too. Verse 18 says, For the grave cannot praise, the death cannot celebrate, they that go down into the pit cannot hope for that truth. And then this speaks to the eternal damnation of the unbeliever. That it is eternal. That there is no hope. The people that go to hell, people that go down into the pit, they cannot hope for God's truth. They can't hope for anything. You turn to Mark chapter 9, and this is important to bring up because there's a huge portion of people in this world that believe in this place called purgatory, which is completely outside of scripture. It's not biblical whatsoever. It is a figment of someone's imagination that people go to this place that's hell-like, but not quite hell, and it's not quite heaven, and you're going to suffer and pay and be purged of your sins. What purgatory is and what it means is it's a purging place for you to be purged, finished being purged, because they don't believe that what Christ did is enough to purge you of your sins. Blasphemy. But that's true. I mean, when you believe in a workspace salvation, then Christ isn't enough. Then you need a place like purgatory because it's like, whoa, what Christ did, I mean, that kind of helps, right? But I mean, you still have got to pay for your sins unless you pay the pope enough money. Then God will look the other way and let you out of purgatory early because you gave the pope some money because God's a respecter of persons like that. No. No. When you die, if you die on this earth, wherever you end up is where you will be. And praise God for those of us that are saved, because where you are, that's where you'll be. You go to heaven, you're going to be with the Lord, you have eternal life, you have eternal life, you're never going to die. You're never going to see death, you're never going to taste the death, you're never going to go to that second death. Ever. Never. But it's the equal opposite of those that are cast in the lake of fire, you know, those that descend into hell, those that go down into the pit, you've got no hope. There is no getting out, there is no second chance, there is no, but wait, wait, I'm going to believe now. Of course you're going to believe. You see, hell's real. You lost your chance, you lost your opportunity. Those that go down into the pit, they cannot hope for God's truth. They can't. But it's not going to come. Mark 9, verse 43, the Bible says, and as Jesus said, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell. Into the fire that never shall be quenched. It's never going to go out. The flames of hell, you don't have the hopes of maybe one day this fire will just stop. I mean, it'll just finally be consumed, it'll go away, and it'll end. Maybe there's an end. Never. Never. And we were just out at a cabin last week, we had a campfire, and you know, campfires go out, right? You burn through your fuel, and what happens? It's gone. People in hell don't have that hope. Because this is the fire, the hell fire, that never is quenched. It's where the wind dieeth not and the fire is not quenched. And he goes on and on and repeats this two more times. If thy foot offend thee, cut it off, it's better for thee to enter into life than having two feet to be cast into hell and the fire that never shall be quenched, where the worm dieeth not and the fire is not quenched. If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out. It's better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where the worm dieeth not and the fire is not quenched. Why? Because there's no hope in hell. It's better for you, I mean, if you're missing a hand, you're missing a leg, you're missing an eye, whatever, you get into heaven, the kingdom of God, great. You're doing great, because the alternative is a fire that's never quenched. You could have your arm and your leg and your eyes, but you're burning forever. And then, of course, you don't have to turn back to Isaiah 38, but Revelation 14 is also another common place that I like to show people when I'm preaching the gospel, especially people who believe in this annihilationism, seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses that want to think that hell is this place of just, you just go there and you're dead. And it's just like you cease to be, you're like not existing anymore. No, in addition to Mark chapter 9, where Jesus is saying the fire is never quenched, you've got Revelation chapter 14 that explains that you're going to be tortured and tormented in that fire. It's not just, oh, well, the fire never goes out, because they'll say, oh, well, the fire doesn't go out, but you cease to exist, you just burn up, you're gone. No? No? Why would God want to keep the fire burning forever if nobody is going to be in it like being burned up, which was the purpose of it being there in the first place was for the punishment of the sins of Satan and his angels and us by extension. Verse number 9 in Revelation chapter 14, Bible says, And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark and his forehead and his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented, tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, the Lamb of Jesus Christ. So you're going to be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of Jesus Christ himself. He's going to be in your presence, and you are going to be being tortured and tormented. And the smoke of the torment ascendeth up forever and ever. And they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Anyone who takes the mark of the beast is going to burn in hell forever and ever and ever. And they're going to be tormented and tortured forever and ever and ever. And you're not going to be able to sleep. I mean, think about sleep deprivation. Think about darkness, burning, all of the most horrible things. That's hell. That's hell. Why are you talking to us about this, Pastor Burzins? Because we don't want people to go there. That's why. We need to be reminded of this real place. And you know what? Other people need to be reminded about it or at least be told about it. What a shame would that be for someone to live their life and never be told about hell being a real place. And they end up going there as a result. What a tragedy. And they knew someone. Let's say they knew someone in their life that could have told them, could have warned them, could have let them know this place is real. And at least given them the opportunity to decide if they want to believe that or not. That would be a tragedy. You can't just sit there and say, oh, well, that would never happen. God would never allow that to happen. You know how God would never allow that to happen? Because he would send somebody. But you know what? God is sending people, but not everybody's listening to God. The Lord's not willing that any should perish. But you know what? God uses man to preach his word. You've been given responsibility and a duty. It hasn't been given to anyone else. It's been given to you. God gives that duty unto us. Anyone who's a believer has that duty, has that responsibility to make known that gift of salvation. It's our duty. And you know what? We need to be reminded about the reality of hell. The free gift is awesome. The reason why we tell people about the gift is because hell's a real place. There's a real need for that gift. Verse number 19, Isaiah chapter 38, the living, the living he shall praise thee as I do this day. The father to the children shall make known thy truth. The Lord was ready to save me. Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. Isaiah had said, let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, what is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord? So these last two verses are kind of added there, give you a little bit more of that information. I like the way it's presented in 2 Kings chapter 20. But that verse in verse number 20 though, the Lord was ready to save me. Therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. This is why we sing. It's why we sing praises unto God. The Lord was ready to save me. The Lord was ready to save you. And you and you and you and you and you and you. Not you, no skin. I'm not pointing at anybody, so I'm just joking. We're not Calvinists. Calvinists would be like, you, not you, not you, you, not you, you, you, not you, not you, not you, not you. And the Mormon would be like, not you, not you, not you. I'm pointing to people with darker skin. Mormons are a bunch of racists in their theology. But anyhow, I don't want to get up on the rabbit trail. Look, the Lord is ready to save me. Therefore, we will sing my songs, the string instruments all the days of our life, in the house of the Lord. What? The challenges that we do are for a good reason. Singing to the Lord every day, you go, oh, what are those crazy ideas, singing four hymns every day? You know what, we ought to be singing to the Lord every day. I mean, are you just happy about your salvation? We ought to be praising the Lord and not forgetting and taking for granted every day of our life and every breath of our life. Hezekiah, I guarantee you, had a different outlook on his life for those last 15 years of his life. When you face death, and then you see, oh, man, I'm going to die and really put things in perspective. Man, I better get my house in order. God suddenly put my house in order. God, please, please save me. And then he does. Wow, every day is a gift. Every year is a gift. Thank you, God. We ought to be happy for that. And you know, as time goes by, people take things for granted. And it's part of our sinful human nature, unfortunately. We just kind of forget about things. And we get distracted with other cares of this world. And we don't put the right things in focus. I'm just as busy as the next person. But you know, we all have to be able to take the time and make the time for the Lord and reflection and prayer and singing and reading and, you know, communing with the Lord that saved you. Make the time. And I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray for you. Make the time. And if you have a problem going, well, I don't know where I could possibly make the time, think about the God that saved you and what he saved you from. And then maybe you could re-prioritize the minutes in your life and devote a little bit of time to say, I don't know, maybe praise the Lord for your salvation. It's good. It's good. Look, I hope people aren't going like, oh, man, Pastor Burson, why are you ripping on me? Look, I want you to rejoice. This isn't meant to be like a downer of teaching right now. I hope you're not feeling that way. This is like, I mean, praise God for saving us for ourself. All these great, wonderful things and for giving us the ability to even preach the gospel and tell people about this wonderful gift. And yes, he's entrusted us with that duty. These are all good things. They're not negative things. Hopefully, you're glad and joyful with your Savior, joyful enough to sing songs every day of your life. It's about as I've ordered prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you. Thank you for watching over us and protecting us and teaching us and guiding us, dear Lord. I thank you for this church. I thank you for all the wonderful people that are here tonight, as well as those that aren't able to make it tonight. Dear Lord, I pray that you would please just strengthen our church. Lord, guide us and direct our paths. God, I pray that you would be able to use us mightily. Lord, we want to be able to make your name known throughout the whole world and to bring honor and glory and let this wicked, dark, perverted, sinful world know that the Lord still reigns and that you're just as powerful as ever before. Help us to get the sins out of our life so that we can be vessels that are meat for your use and that we can serve you to the utmost, Lord. And we just ask for your guidance over this body, our church, and help lead us and direct us into that which you would have us to do. Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.